


Commiseration

by via_ostiense



Category: Rent - Larson
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-03
Updated: 2006-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-15 17:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/via_ostiense/pseuds/via_ostiense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We've got a lot in common," Mark slurred.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Commiseration

"We've got a lot in common," Mark slurred, throwing his arm around Joanne. His breath reeked of beer, his glasses had disappeared, and he probably couldn't tell he was hanging onto Joanne and not Roger or Angel or someone else that didn't hate his guts.

"Yeah?" Joanne asked. She was going to make some cutting rejoinder, something like, 'What, an X chromosome?' or, 'Yeah, nothing's sure a hell of a lot,' but when she opened her mouth, the only thing that came out clearly was the 'yeah.'

"Yeah." Mark got in her face and stared at her. Joanne could see her reflections in his eyes. She looked out of proportion. Made sense, since eyes were curved surfaces and stretching out flat surfaces on curved surfaces made flat surfaces look weird, like trying to make a flat map of the world stay in proportion, not that she was a flat surface or a map, but, oh fuck it.

"See," Mark began, and he threw his arms out. "A lot. Like, a lot. Like, that much a lot." He gestured grandly with his arms, or maybe just drunkenly, and indicated a lot of space.

"Ow! Fuck off, Mark!" Joanne tried to push him away and rub her head at the same time, and only succeeded in losing her balance. She grabbed at one of his flailing arms and fell over anyway, then Mark crashed down on top of her. Amazingly, he was still talking.

"Yeah. I mean, we're both really drunk, and we both loved Maureen," came from somewhere around her breasts. "And she dumped me, and she dumped you too, and I'll bet that she's back at the Pussy Cat dancing on the bar with some bitch in rubber again."

"Is not!" Joanne denied. She wasn't going to think about Maureen or rubber or being dumped and she definitely wasn't going to have a pity party with Mark, the ex-boyfriend of her ex-girlfriend. It wasn't like she'd called him up or anything just because she felt miserable and wanted to cry her eyes out and throw things and share the feelings with someone else that Maureen had fucked over. Or maybe she had, she couldn't exactly remember and things had gotten fuzzy after she'd given up on mixing drinks and gone straight for the bottle.

"Is too," Mark said. Ew. Was he drooling on her shirt? "She always does that when she's feeling like a bitch." Mark tried to sit up, or that's what she thought he was doing. Joanne really didn't want to think about any other possibilities. "Or on top of the world, and since Maureen's a vicious Doña Juanita, she's always like that when she's just dumped someone."

"Stop that!" Joanne slapped one of his roving hands; Mark's head was still facedown on her stomach and his hands were sliding around nowhere proper. "Getting really drunk with the ex of your ex and having bad sex with them is so far beyond pathetic that it's," she blanked out on how pathetic it was. Really, really pathetic, especially since this was Mark and she didn't like Mark, even if they'd bonded over Maureen's bitchiness. "It's really pathetic," she finished.

Mark lifted his head and Joanne was surprised at how trashed he looked. Not just drunk, but God-awful tired and thirty years older. "I don't care," he said, and leaned up and tried to kiss her. He missed, but the side of her neck wasn't a bad place, either, and Joanne wound her fingers in his hair and yanked his head up. Mark's breath was hot and stank and his eyes were wild, hurt and angry and everything clouded over by a thick layer of alcohol. 

"Maybe I don't, either," Joanne said, and she was vaguely surprised to hear herself saying it, but she thought, 'Fuck it.' Maureen was probably sprawled out in someone's bed at this very moment, her legs wide open and her hands buried in some other woman's hair, urging her on, faster, harder, goddamnit. Mark was thin and hard, no curves on him anywhere, and even with her eyes closed, Joanne couldn't pretend he was anything he wasn't.

"We're gonna regret this tomorrow," Mark said. He looked at her for a moment and then his hands went up under her shirt and Joanne bit down on his tongue.

"I don't care," Joanne said, and she liked the way it sounded, liked the way Mark felt on top of her, so she said it again. "I don't care."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [When the Promise Breaks (The Seasons of Love Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/187413) by [SRoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SRoni/pseuds/SRoni)




End file.
